


Nothing Here to Run From

by Ithinkwehaveanemergency



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 10:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15771870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ithinkwehaveanemergency/pseuds/Ithinkwehaveanemergency
Summary: Corey gives Liam some advice.





	Nothing Here to Run From

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LovelyLittleGrim](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovelyLittleGrim/gifts).



“Liam.”

 

Liam sits up in his chair, acknowledging the hiss that had come from the other side of the table.  Corey is staring at him with an arched brow.

 

“Hmm?”  Liam shakes his head, hoping the chimera hadn’t noticed why he’d been zoning out.

 

Corey frowns, left eyebrow still high on his forehead.

 

“Nolan isn't interested in him.  He's just a shameless flirt, you know that.”  Corey speaks softly, knowing Liam will hear easily.  He smiles when Liam’s eyes go wide. “Don't play dumb.  It doesn't become you.”

 

“Corey…”  Liam swallows, looking down at his abandoned homework.  He bites his lip and closes his eyes, having nothing to offer but false denials.

 

“I'm just saying.”  Corey sighs, looking over at the stacks where Nolan and Mason were huddled together over a book, smiling at each other amd whispering about the plot of a story Liam knows is one of Mason’s favorites.  Apparently it's one of Nolan’s too.

 

Liam’s never read it.  Despite years of Mason telling him he should.

 

“You have no reason to stare them down, looking like someone just ripped your heart out.”  Corey continues, reaching across the table and hitting Liam in the face with his pencil to stop him from staring creepily for the second time.

 

“I’m sorry, Corey, I would never-  _ Ow _ !”  Liam starts before he's cut off by Corey stabbing him in the lip with the pointed side of the pencil.  He sucks his lip into his mouth at looks at his friend like he’s gone crazy.

 

“Look, man.”  Corey glares across the table, still brandishing the writing utensil as a weapon. “If you honestly don't want to be with Mason, that's one thing, but if the reason you haven't told him you're in love with him is because of  _ me _ ?  You're an asshole.”

 

“ _ Excuse me?” _  Liam whispers in surprise, and with a slight lisp as his lip heals.

 

“Liam, I love Mason, I do.”  Corey looks at the werewolf with a pitying smile.  “That's why I want him to be happy. And I have  _ always _ known that he’d always be happiest with you.”

 

“But I-”

 

“I know that this is all new to you, and I'm… I mean, it's probably weird… but I'm here if you wanna talk about the whole  _ gay  _ thing.”  Corey shrugs then shakes his head, getting back to the point.  “I just need you to know that when you finally started looking at Mason like… well… like you just were… I was relieved.”

 

Liam continues to stare, baffled at the entire conversation.

 

“I just… I was so glad that you feel the way he does.”  Corey smiles sadly, reaching across the table once more, this time to grab Liam’s hand.  “Because dude… that guy is  _ never in his life  _ going to love someone as much as he loves you.”

 

“Was-”  Liam chokes around the word, his throat tight.  He realizes his eyes are burning a bit as well. He clears his throat and blinks at Corey.  “Was that why you broke up with him?”

 

“We just…  _ both _ … decided it was for the best.”  Corey nods pointedly, and Liam knows that the answer means that it probably had a bit to do with the breakup.

 

“Are we interrupting something?”  Mason's voice cut through their staring match.

 

Liam coughs lightly, pulling his hand away from Corey’s.  He looks up at Mason who is looking down at them with a confused smile as Nolan takes the seat next to Corey and starts packing up the bag he’d left there.

 

“No, uh, you guys ready to go?”  Liam looks away again, not knowing what to do with all the information he’s been given in the last few minutes.  He starts packing up his stuff as well, glancing up through his lashes at a grinning Corey. Liam’s eyes widen and he makes an aborted movement with his head, but it's too late, and Corey’s already speaking.

 

“Hey, Mase, why don't you too go ahead.”  Corey’s face drops into an innocent smile as he looks at his ex-boyfriend.  “Nolan, can you swing me by my house, I need to grab something before we go over to Scott's.”

 

“What do I get out of it?”  Nolan grins, eyebrows wagging suggestively at the chimera.

 

“I give a pretty mean blowjob.”  Corey shrugs and slings his backpack on.

 

“ _ Seriously _ ?”  Nolan hisses in shock, moving to following the older teen out of the library.

 

“No, not seriously, now let's go perv.”  Corey rolls his eyes and slings an arm around the pouting human’s shoulder.  He looks back at Liam and winks before they walk out the front doors, leaving Liam on the verge of a minor freakout.

 

“What was that about?”

 

Mason’s voice cut through Liam’s thoughts.  When Liam glanced up at Mason, he saw the wide, beautiful eyes he had been looking at in a different light the past few months.

 

His best friend has been all he’s been able to think about lately.

 

The first thought when he wakes up is to check for a text from Mason.

 

When class dismissed for lunch, he's always halfway through a text to see where Mason is and what he wants to get to eat.

 

The last thought when he goes to bed is imagining what the other boy is doing, in his own room, just before bed.

 

Those thoughts sometimes (more often than not) lead him down a path of thoughts that long ago proved he didn't just think of Mason in a platonic way.

 

But Liam never thought it was something that he could have.

 

“Li?”  Mason asks, voice filled with concern.

 

Liam realizes he's just been staring up at his best friend blankly.  Mason has a curious expression on his face, like he’s looking at a riddle.

 

Liam doesn't know how to give him the answer.

 

“Yeah, no, nothing.  Let's go.” Liam frantically finishes packing his notebook away.  He stands and smiles tightly at Mason, nodding toward the entrance.

 

Liam follows him out to the parking lot and they walk in silence to Mason’s car.

 

Halfway through the drive, Liam looks up at Mason’s profile.  His brow is furrowed and he looks tense.

 

“Hey, so…”  Liam starts, nervous for no reason, a common state for him when he’s alone with Mason these days.  “You think you could loan me that book?”

 

“What?”  Mason glances over in surprise before turning his eyes back to the road.  “The Long Walk? You want to read it, really?”

 

“Yeah, I mean…  it's your favorite book right?”  Liam shrugs.

 

“Kind of.”  Mason answers, looking even more confused than before.  At a stop light he looks over at Liam suspiciously. “You were listening to Nolan and I talking?”

 

“No!  I mean, yes, obviously.”  Liam groans. “Nevermind. It was stupid.”

 

Mason doesn't answer, but he switches the blinker and turns in the opposite direction as Scott’s house, heading for his own instead.

 

Liam starts shaking his leg in his seat, but he doesn't ask why they've rerouted.

 

They pull into Mason’s driveway and the human takes a deep breath, looking over at Liam one last time before getting out of the car.

 

Liam waits a beat, then he follows him inside.

 

Liam watches as Mason turns his key in the familiar big red door and let's them into the pitch black house.  As he’s toeing off his shoes, the hall light flickers on and he looks up to see Mason silently climbing the stairs.

 

Liam feels strange about following.

 

He feels like something has changed, but they haven't said anything to each other  _ too _ out of the ordinary.

 

He climbs the stairs anyway.

 

Mason is crouching at his bookshelf, and when he stands, he has two books in his hands.

 

“I feel like you should probably start with some Stephen King that will actually interest you.”  Mason holds out a hardcover book and Liam grabs it, reading the title aloud.

 

“Eleven, twenty-two, sixty-three.”  Liam looks up at Mason in confusion.  “Stephen King wrote about the Kennedy assassination?”

 

“Sort of.”  Mason nods excitedly.  “I actually had hoped you would want to borrow a Stephen King book some time, because I thought of you the whole time I was reading this.  They made a tv show of it apparently. I wanna watch it but I kinda hoped… you’d wanna watch it with me one day.”

 

Mason smiles at him, and it's the warm, familiar smile that Liam has always known and it just switches something on in Liam’s brain.  He’s opening his mouth before he can think too hard about it.

 

“I wanna do everything with you one day.”  Liam says.

 

Mason’s head tilts.  He blinks in confusion, opening his mouth before seeming to think twice about it and shutting it once again.

 

“I mean like…”  Liam looks down at the book, growling in frustration, and then up at his best friend again, before taking a deep breath.  “I don't know how to put this in words. I wanna  _ be _ with you everyday.  And that way maybe  _ one day _ we’ll get to do all the things you want to do together, because we have all the time in the world.”

 

“Wha-”  Mason shakes his head.  “Liam you're not making any sense at all.  It sounds suspiciously like you're asking me to marry you.”

 

“Yes!  Wait, no!  I mean…” Liam shakes his head and walks over to Mason's bed, throwing himself face down on it and shouting into the comforter.

 

Liam feels the bed dip beside him and strong hands are pushing with futility at his side.

 

“Roll over, fatty.”  Mason groans, and Liam stops resisting, letting Mason roll him over.  He keeps his eyes closed, though, afraid of the face that Mason is making at him.

 

Mason’s pulse is accelerated, but he doesn't smell nervous or sad.  He smells the way Mason always does.

 

Fresh paper, honey and that fancy oat soap Mrs. Hewitt keeps stocked at every sink in the house.

 

He smells like home.

 

“I'm an actual chick flick.”  Liam groans, hitting himself in the forehead with his palm.  “I fall in love with my best friend, I word vomit out love confessions, and I literally just thought to myself that you smell like home.”

 

Mason laughs and the weight on the bed shifts slightly, dispersing evenly to his left.

 

“Does that make me the handsome male lead with a heart of gold?”  Mason’s voice is soft and Liam can feel his breath on his face.

 

Liam opens his eyes and finds Mason propped on his side, looking down at him.

 

“Yeah.”  Liam breathes out, taking in Mason’s grin.  His chest clenches like there's no air left in the room and he reaches up to place a hand on Mason’s collarbone.  “Yeah, you're the gold.”

 

Mason laughs, loud and delighted.  He brings his hand up and places it on top of Liam’s, running his thumb along the tips of his blunt nails.

 

“You're so weird.”  Mason says, unable to wipe the smile off his face.  “That's why I love you.”

 

“Yeah?”  Liam smiles back, heart thumping madly.  “Enough to marry me one day? Because apparently I've proposed already?”

 

“Probably.”  Mason nods, looking into Liam’s eyes with adoration that Liam realizes now that he’s seen many times before.

 

He just didn't realize what it meant until now.

 

“I'm sorry I fucked up the whole love-confession-thing.”  Liam smiles at Mason sheepishly. “But I do, y’know?”

 

“I don't think you fucked anything up.”  Mason shakes his head and squeezes Liam's hand.  “I'm just… I can't believe this is real. I hoped, obviously.  I mean, I didn't want it til recently but I think deep down...”

 

“It wasn't obvious to me.”  Liam whispers. “I'm sorry it took me so long to figure it out.”

 

“I'm not.”  Mason laughs.  He brings Liam's hand up to his mouth, kissing his palm softly.  “I think this is perfect the way it is. I think we did this the right way.

 

Liam’s heart swells and he surges up to kiss Mason.

 

_ Finally. _


End file.
